Over at DailyKos, there’s a very good post about anti-vaxxer idiocy (I believe in rewarding non-science blogs with links when they take this stuff head-on). The author’s motivation illustrates just how murderous this lunacy is:

Part of what infuriates me about this issue is that I’m aware of a case where a child was infected with Measles before he was old enough to be immunized against it. The source of the infection was an older child at a day care whose parents decided against vaccination.

The child’s Measles progressed to subacute sclerosing panencephalitis from which his brain deteriorated, eventually causing loss of body function, and an all-around horrible death. All of which could be traced back to abject human stupidity.

Comments

If you trace the causation back to Wakefield, I don’t even think it can be chalked up to benign stupidity. The guy has something pathological going on. I’m no psychologist, but the words Wakefield makes me think of are “narcissist,” “delusional,” and “denial.”